THE CANNON GUYS

Bill and Larry Duerk

Bill is a part of three generations of DHS graduates. Aftergraduating, Bill received an associate degree in engineering fromNorthwest State. After his father’s death in 1977, he took over thefamily business, Duerk Construction. He retired from the businessin 2014.
In the late eighties, he met his wife, Jan, and her two children, Chris Ripke and Danielle (Ripke Brown. With both the kids being involved with sports and cheerleading, Bill was there to show support and school spirit. Being around Chris and Dani, he had gotten back into schoolspirit mode. Bill and his brother, Larry, both enjoyed pyrotechnics and making noise. This led them to the idea of building a cannon, which they named Thumper. Bill reached out to Coach Buti to inquire if he and Larry could shoot Thumper at the home football games. The coach’s “yes” led to what would become a 20-year tradition. After the first year, the brothers decided that the “boom” needed to be bigger. The next fall, “Bertha” was introduced to the DHS crowd. She made her debut by showing her BIG spirit that not only rattled the press box windows, but the fans also. Bill still gets a chuckle when remembering all the people over the years that said they knew the cannon was going to go off after the touchdown, but they still jumped. Bill considers it a great honor to be inducted into the Defiance High School Hall of Fame. He wants to thank all the coaches, athletes, fans and community for allowing the tradition to go on as long as it did. Bill has enjoyed his many years of supporting the Bulldogs with cannon spirit and appreciates all the